Reaction to our article on “African Press in Norway emerges stronger day by day!

2 Responses to “African Press in Norway emerges stronger day by day!”

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We have decided to use the above comment from Kichwa Mbaya, to add something to what we said in our earlier article on having emerged stronger due to jealousy and harassment.

Working in unity as Africans, would enable us achieve much as a people on this earth. We hope that many of our people will start seeing the light and support us as we continue to progress in building our platform that the African people may use if they choose to do so.

We look forward to get your views on this subject because it is important for us to know what you feel as our readers.

Kichwa Mbaya has really hit the head on the nail. That it is a “crime to harass and threaten people.”

Our staff will continue to do their best for the benefit of our readers and we will continue onward march and be even more stronger when we get more staff and contributing writers who will join us in our reporting.

By Korir, African Press in Norway, APN.

africanpress@chello.no

NORAD - Is the directorate’s employment policy breeding racistic ideologies?

NORAD is a directorate under the Minister for International Develoment Mr Erik Solheim(Photo on the right)>

In the next few days we will bring to readers our investigation results that our journalist investigative service has done on Norwegian Agency for Development - NORAD’s employment policies, procedures, who gets the jobs and will question the fairness in their employment procedures as far as Africans are concerned.

We seek to do the same with other Norwegian departments, Parliament and Municipalities in order to understand what opportunities Africans get in the country.

The aim of African Press in doing the above is to bring to the readers the employment statistics from every department so that it is known how many Africans get fair treatment when it comes to jobs in the country and abroad, for examples if they are given jobs to represent Norway outside the country as expatriates in any field.

The government makes employment policies and they impress upon companies to employ the minority in the society. It is not always followed by companies and private or government institutions. It is important that the policy maker - the government, leads as an example to practice what they preach to others - employ the minority in senior positions and those already employed should be given promotion at a reasonable time to encourage others and become role models for the coming African generation, not only to let them get stuck in one position without promotion year in year out!

NORAD is engaged in projects in Africa and other continents of the world. This is an agency that sends out Norwegians to work in different institutions, some of them following up on how the Norwegian aid is being utilised by receiving countries.

This is a very important thing that an agency representing a country is doing for receiving countries.

However, we question the procedures on how the selections of those to represent the agency abroad is done by NORAD.

We believe that a qualified African can do a good job if not even better in an African setting than an ethnic Norwegian. If NORAD was to send a Norwegian to, for example, Sudan, Ghana or Tanzania, the Norwegian will have to do the best to understand the culture and traditions of the people he or she will work with in the two countries if he or she has to manage to do a good job within the contracted period. Not forgetting that some contracts last for 2 or 4 years, there is not much such a person can do, because one or two years may be used to understand the way a country and the people function.

In Norad’s case we are not yet sure of how many African people are send out of Norway to represent the department and how many are employed at Norad headquarters in Oslo. We will need answers from Norad on these questions so as to let our readers judge how fair the department is towards the African people. We will also want answers from Norad on how many Africans work in the headquarters and how the promotions are done to ensure that they are happy to serve this country whole-heartedly.

Norad has been criticised over the years on how they use the money in developing countries in projects, salaries, cars, housing and leisure.

It is a known fact that most of those who get contracts to represent Norad abroad for 2 to 4 years get rich very quickly because they are paid huge allowances.

Could this be the reason why there may be no Africans being send out of Norway to represent Norad?

Norad workers, for example in Africa, return back from there when their contracts expire and they have enough money to purchase cars and houses without having to take bank loans!

Could this be a good investment for an African also? There is no question there are many Africans who are very qualified living in Norway who could offer their services to Norad.

We have teachers, lecturers, engineers, carpenters, nurses, doctors, accountants,  economists, administrators and many other professions that could represent Norad very well if they were given the opportunity to go and work in African countries.

A Nigerian can simply fit in Uganda overseeing a Norad project. A South African can easily fit in Kenya! So why not employ a Nigerian for example and post him to represent Norad because he will not need one year to understand the Ugandans. Why send one ethnic Norwegian from a remote village who has never lived in a town to go and represent Norad in a big city in Africa? First of all, such a person would have a big problem to settle in Oslo where his culture and language is main.

Sending him to settle in a big African city is a punishment because such person will use the first one year to understand the country, and probably 6 months to understand the people before settling down to run the project. If such a person had a two year contract, then the person will work for only the last 6 months. Do we call that producing results and utilising tax payers money well? This questions need answers. 

There is one interesting case we will now bring to the knowledge of our readers.

A number of years ago, there was a Norwegian man dispatched by Norad to start a fishing project in Kisumu, Kenya. The man was from the north of Norway. He settled down in Kisumu with his family. After a few months, he had not started anything. He started holding meetings with government representatives in Nairobi, thereafter, other meetings followed in the provincial level and district level. When all meetings were through, 9 months had gone.

The man used most of his time, when not in meetings, to sun-bath with his family.

It took him 9 months to finalise what he wanted because it was difficult for him to understand the people and what the people wanted to give priority. His insistence on priorities made the project wait for another 4 months.

Note that he has already used 12 months of his contract, a full one year gone without achieving anything.

He send reports to Norad headquarters in Norway about what he was doing. Some Norad people from Norway travelled to visit him and join in some of the meetings within that 12 month period.

The man had a 2 year contract and now he had 12 months remaining. He started the project and after 3 months on it, he had to make changes because the fishing nets he had acquired single-handedly without consulting the people who were going to use them did not fit in the projects ambitions.

Look here! He now has 9 months of his contract. He started new meetings to try and re-start the project and after 6 months, no project had been started.

When he realised he only had 3 months of his contract left, he requested Norad headquarters for renewal of his contract but this time not to run the project in Kisumu.

He got a new 3 year contract and was posted to Tanzania to start a project.

Did Kenya benefit from this man? The answer is a big NO. Had Norad send a Ugandan or a Nigerian to Kenya to start that fish project it could have started within 3 months period into the contract. That would have benefited the Kenyan people.

 This is one of the examples making African Press to ask questions. We are sure Norad’s leadership understands what we are talking about here, when we say this is a waste of public funds.

We have many examples the same as the above. One interesting project that was started without proper consultations with the Kenyans and without understanding the Kenyan people’s priorities belonged to Danida, the Danish Development Agency. We will report on what happened before and after the project stalled. The Danish man had a project to built a bridge to connect two villages in Nyando area near Kisumu in Kenya. The bridge was swept away by the floods because the Danida man being an “expert as he said” had refused to take heed of the advice given by the Luo elders who new the area well. His project become a disaster of the year.

The Minister for International Development Mr Erik Solheim should do something about this problems. When he was the leader of SV, the Norwegian Socialist Political Party, he was very vocal fighting for change in society and change in public spending. We, therefore, know he understands what we are saying, when we point out that change in policy is required so that African countries getting assistance do not only get such assistance on paper, while the money goes to en-rich the officers who get contracts to work abroad.

A Norwegian lady writes a few thoughts below. She is an expatriate in Africa. Can an African who is a graduate from Ås university, just like her, be able to do a job like this one if the African got the oppotunity, just like the Norwegian lady got, to be given a contract? She writes:>

Welcome to my home page!
Here I will share my experiences and explorations from living and working in Ethiopia for 15 months from May 2004.
 

BACKGROUND
I grew up with my parents and one sister in Lørenskog. After high school I decided to move northwards to Tromsø where I studied for three years, before I finished my studies at the Agricultural University of Norway (NLH) in Ås. After graduating, I have been working in a cabin for hikers and skiers in Jotunheimen (Fondsbu), and as a volunteer and assistant in the Development Fund (Utviklingsfondet) in Oslo.VOLUNTEER FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
For 17 months from March 2004 I am a participant in the Fredskorpset programme “Volunteers for Sustainable Development” (VSD). This is an exchange programme between three Norwegian partners and six partners in Africa, Asia and Latin-America. All the VSD partners work towards increased food security of poor and marginalized communities in the south, with special emphasis on sustainable natural resource management. My home partner is the Development Fund, in co-operation with Noragric at NLH and the Research Institute and National Center for Ecological Agriculture (Norsøk). My host partner is the organization Relief Society of Tigray (REST) in Mekelle, Ethiopia. There I am going to stay for 15 months, working towards increased food production through soil and water conservation projects.” end quote.
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African Press will follow up on this story in a few days to come, by discussing promotion procedures in Norad, in an effort to know how many Africans work there and how many have been given promotions in the past years or those lined up for promotions in the near future.

By Korir, African Press in Norway, APN.

africanpress@chello.no

Russian dissident presumed poisoned in the UK!

The former Russian spy is reported to have been poisoned in the UK where he lived as a refugee.

<<Mr Litvinenko in his hospital bed before succumbing to death.

The government of President Putin (right) has denied any involvement in the killing. Police has reported that the investigators have discovered radioactive elements in the former spy’s urine.

It has been reported that Mr Alexander Litvinenko was a hard critic of president Putin and his government.

According to BBC, “his death has been linked to the presence of a “major dose” of radioactive polonium-210 in his body.”

The police investigating the case are finding it very difficult because of the circumstances surrounding it. BBC has quoted them saying, “the case is so difficult partly because of the more than two-week gap between the day former KGB agent Litvinenko is thought to have been poisoned and police beginning their investigation on 16 November. They have been examining two meetings Mr Litvinenko had on 1 November - one at the Millennium Hotel with a former KGB agent and another man, and a rendezvous at the Itsu sushi restaurant in London’s Piccadilly.”

The former spy may have been poisoned during one of this meetings. He was seen as a threat uncovering corruption in Russia and someone may have wanted him dead.

It was also reported that he was tracking the killers of the woman journalist who was short dead recently in Moscow.

By Korir, African Press in Norway, APN.

africanpress@chello.no

Source.bbc

Fighting in DRC is on!

Dissident soldiers are now reported in a fight against the Democratic Republic of Congo’s government of Mr Joseph Kabila, the newly re-elected president.

General Nkunda says he wants Tutsi community in Kabila’s government!

The attack started in the eastern part of the country close to the Rwandan border.The DRC’s army reports that the troops that started the attack are loyal to dissident general Laurent Nkunda. They attacked the town of Sake for many hours hours.

According to the United Nations, thousands of civilians had left their villages to avoid the violence.

The BBC reports that, “the fighting comes amid heightened tension in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, where the former rebel leader, Joseph Bemba, is challenging his defeat in last month’s presidential elections.”

Recently we reported that the Mr Bemba who lost the presidential elections recently may decide to wage war against the government.

There are now fears that some of Mr Bemba’s soldiers may team up with those loyal to general Laurent Nkunda and start another conflict in the DRC.

The DRC people are tired of the conflict started by leaders who just want to have power. When the elections were called, it was expected that the loosers are to accept defeat and work with the winning side.

Now when the fighting starts in the eastern part, it will most likely move down towards Kinshasa, the seat of government of Mr Joseph Kabila.

There is no doubt that Kabila won the elections.

Starting the war now, General Nkunda may be having a plan. It is possible that he wants to force Kabila to negotiate into sharing power just like Bemba did and might demand to be given the post of vice-president.

When Mr Bemba and his forces fought before he was included in the government, he forced Kabila to negotiate and got the vice presidency.

By Korir, African Press in Norway, APN.

africanpress@chello.no

Source.bbc

No Unity among Africans in Norway!

Many Africans in Norway could have made it in business, work and education if they were united.

They are very hard-working people, who would like to become something in life.

The biggest problem that breeds disunity is jealousy within the African society. Instead of unity, there is more love for disunity, finding out the differences between countries in Africa and the breeding of the differences amongst one another.

This kind of behaviour has helped the Norwegians or Europeans at large, to rule the Africans easily because it is a matter of divide and be the master.

Many organizations run by Africans in Norway exist by name only in most cases. And those that are running well, whenever they have functions, people from other countries, even if invited normally choose not to attend because of the emphasis on which country one comes from in Africa. And the jealous attitude that people have in thinking if they attend the function, the other African organising the function might benefit and become better.

A good example of disunity is what happened when this African Press was established a few months ago. A group of Africans who were called upon to get involved were only interested with how much money they were going to make and share as soon as posible, instead of looking at it first as a good platform for Africans to make themselves heard in Norway should they decide to air their views.

A few decided, however, to support the establishment. Such good spirit that made them support the idea and establishment of African Press should be awaken in every African man and woman, if Africans have to develope and no longer be the underdogs!

Many of our African people say they do not have a platform to air their views be it in social or political issues. But now African Press has given them a platform, yet because of jealousy against one another it is only few in Norway that appreciate African Press as a good platform, yet we get huge support from other countries.

Sweden tops the chart of African Press readers, followed by the US and the UK coming as number 2 and 3 respectively.

By Korir, African Press in Norway, APN.

africanpress@chello.no

African Press in Norway emerges stronger day by day!

Recently, we raised an issue of a group of people in Oslo who have been campaigning for the destruction of African Press in Norway.

The 4 African men from East Africa and 3 Norwegian men have been working around the clock to try and find ways and means to destroy African Press because of jealousy and the fact that they know we are determined to publish the truth and uncover dirty deals that some people are involved in, deals that some of the compaigners are also party to and would like to keep it going.

Now that we have emerged stronger day by day, because of their challenge to destroy for us, we are proud to inform our readers that we will continue to report on things that others may wish to put under the carpet.

African Press will soon move into new offices,  and for making it possible for us, we wish to thank the bank that has processed a loan for us, our five financial contributors who have agreed to fund our on-line media and the two investors that has agreed to put in some capital. We thank them all for taking us seriously after they understood our problem with “the ill-motived destructive jealous 7″ who tried to spoil our chances to grow.

Now there is no turning back. We are on and will move from strength to strength.

Our on-line media will report news touching on Africa, Africans living in Norway and other parts of the world. We will have an open door policy and will be objective in our reporting!

In the very near future, we will advertise vacancies for journalists interested in African politics, culture and sports who may wish to join us in developing African Press in Norway to become a strong on-line news media to reckon with.

Our loyal readers cannot be forgotten when we are saying thanks to all who are part of our growing from strength to strength!

By Korir, African Press in Norway, APN.

africanpress@chello.no

Kenya: Biwott elected KANU chairman, to take over Uhuru!

Former powerful minister in Moi’s government Mr Nicholas Biwott “Kenya’s Total Man” is back in the limelight after couping the chairmanship from Mr Uhuru Kenyatta.

Kenyatta has, however, remained adamant refusing to be ousted by Biwott camp.  The Kenya media has now reported that “The two factions – one led by Mr Kenyatta and Secretary-General William Ruto and the other led by Mr Biwott and supported by retired President Moi – are fighting a bitter battle over whether or not the party should be allied to the Orange Democratic Movement Party.”

The two groups are fighting because they have disagreed on whether KANU should join ODM-K, a party former president Moi is totally against.

Moi considers Raila Odinga, one of the leaders in ODM-K people , a leader who cannot be trusted because he shifts from party to party whenever he realises he may not become the party’s torch-bearer. Raila left KANU when he discovered he was not the party’s choice to take over the leadership after Moi.

According to the Kenya media, “The Kenyatta-Ruto team is for it while the Moi-Biwott camp is against, arguing that the party has strong national support and can regain power on its own.”

When Biwott was elected chairman on friday he got his immediate line up as follows, “Former minister Noah Katana Ngala was elevated to deputy chairman. Prof Sam Ongeri became the vice-chairman.”

Returning to Nairobi after being elected by delegates who gathered in Mombasa, Biwott’s group has vowed to submit the names of the new party officials to the registrar of societies on monday morning.

There is no question that the new officials will be registered especially after Moi and Kibaki met recently for talks on the future of the country. After the meeting Moi emerged and publicly supported the Kanu delegates meeting that saw Biwott elected chairman.

It is for Kibaki’s interest that ODM-K should not be strong now if he will seek the 2nd term in office. And if Moi has assured the government the support in future elections, it is most definite that Kibaki’s government cannot refuse to order the registrar of societies to register the new Kanu officials.

It now remains to be seen what happens to KANU. If the registrar of societies strikes our Uhuru and Ruto, then ODM-K will start marching a road to disintegration.

A very important question for KANU members is what will happen to the party if Biwott really succeeds in his plans to take over KANU and unite the factions. Biwott will never represent KANU if there are important meetings in most countries abroad. We all know he cannot travel to the US because they cancelled his visa.

What happens then if he manages to take KANU back to State House? As head of state, will he rule without having close contacts with the US and other important European countries who are against him and the style of his leadership.

By Korir, African Press in Norway

africanpress@chello.no

Source.nation.ke

Norwegian man walking in his sleep without clothes causes panic!

The police in Asker had to rush to a house when they received an emergency call from a family Saturday morning.

Those who called for help had noticed a naked man outside their house. When the police arrived at the “scene of fear” the man was unable to explain why he was naked outside somebody’s house.

It was soon discovered he had sleep-walked from his house naked. When the police assisted him back to his house, he could not get in because when he walked out of the house in his sleep, the door automatically closed behind him.

The police had to call  a lock expert company to help the man into the house.

It is not know whether the police gave him clothes or if he remained naked while he was waiting for the lock company to arrive.

By Korir, African Press in Norway, APN

africanpress@chello.no

Source.ANB.25